Liermans Road

SOLD

This property is the result of a 3 year passion-project to assemble two adjacent view lots overlooking a horseshoe shaped beach with a world renowned surf break. First step was to partially demolish an old brick house, and replace with a new structure that is terraced on 7 levels to maximize the views of the beach below while also achieving the best use of the natural contours of the 40 degree slope of the hillside. Retaining walls and planter boxes were created with stones harvested from the site during excavation for the foundation and swimming pools. 40-year-old Date Palms were rescued from a neighboring property under demolition, and transported to these stone planter walls by crane.

The lower garden terrace leads to a 16-seat movie theatre hidden beneath the pool deck and a guest suite is nestled beneath the rim flow pool’s waterfall edge. The main residence is constructed on poured concrete slab over pilings. External walls are made from two courses of brick tied with hollow cavity between for natural ventilation and insulation typical of South African construction methods and skim coated with EarthCrete plaster using natural pigments derived from local materials. African Meranti was used for the exposed beam wood ceilings. Interior Floors are poured concrete with under floor heating system. Pool deck is local pebble aggregate troweled by hand on site.

The ocean facing windows are oversized, floor-to-ceiling sliding aluminum with triple pane insulated tempered glass, all recessing into pocket walls that conceal with the windows and frames when the house is open and in use. Floor-to-ceiling panels of louvered shutters on ceiling-hung tracks also recess neatly behind thick walls to further expand the views when open in the morning and evenings – but are moved into position daily from 2-5pm to control the afternoon wind and minimize glare from the setting sun over the sea. The house uses no air conditioning, instead making use of the natural wind source from Table Mountain and the local thru wall ventilation design that distributes cool breezes throughout the house when desired, or closed and insulated from the wind during the winter season.

All furnishings for the residence were designed and fabricated individually by local craftsmen. Ocean facing bathtubs were poured in concrete on-site and contoured by hand. Basins, indoor and outdoor shower enclosures, gazebos, wardrobes and kitchen cabinets were made on-site. Art seen hanging in these photos was made by several local artists living within a 5km radius. The curved bench near the rim flow pool is made from the left portion of lower jawbone of a Southern Wright Whale that washed up on a nearby beach.